James Gunn has said he’s well aware some people will take offense at his new Superman movie “just because it is about kindness.”
Superman, which launches July 11 and kickstarts the rebooted DC Universe, is coming out “at a particular time when people are feeling a loss of hope in other people’s goodness,” Gunn told The Times in a new profile.
“I’m telling a story about a guy who is uniquely good, and that feels needed now because there is a meanness that has emerged due to cultural figures being mean online.”
He added: “And I include myself in this. It is ad infinitum, millions of people having tantrums online. How are we supposed to get anywhere as a culture? We don’t know what’s real, and that is a really difficult place for the human brain to be. If I could press a button to make the internet disappear I’d consider it. And, no, I don’t make films to change the world, but if a few people could be just a bit nicer after this it would make me happy.”
The story of Superman the world famous superhero character is “the story of America,” Gunn told the publication.
“An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country, but for me it is mostly a story that says basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.”
Gunn then admitted his new Superman movie “plays differently” in different parts of the United States (The Times interviewer wondered how different it will play in New York and Kansas, for example). Gunn then said he expects some people will find his new Superman offensive, but he dismissed that reaction.
“But it’s about human kindness and obviously there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them.”
Gunn went on to say he’s already seen a degree of backlash against his take on Superman, played by David Corenswet.
“We posted footage of David with a bunch of kids who were extras on set,” Gunn said. “Kids love Superman — it’s like when they see Santa. And David is high-fiving them, it was so beautiful, such a cute video. And then I saw people saying, ‘Oh, great, we’ve got a Superman who’s a pussy.’ Are you kidding me? That’s something you’re going to attack? That little kids like this guy and he’s kind?”
Gunn’s comments here echo those he made in December last year, when he expressed hope that Superman would help “unify” fans amid an increasingly polarizing internet.
In a Q&A session attended by IGN at the time, Gunn touched on the message Superman, with “the simplicity of the morals and goodness and love” the character embodies, can convey upon its release.
“Listen, I do think that things have become really polarizing, and my life is just not that,” Gunn said. “I also think that the internet has become polarizing and it’s much more polarizing than life is. I live in rural Georgia and I have friends of all different political persuasions. I’m not a person that believes in cutting someone out because their politics are different than mine. And I think at the end of the day, most of us are trying to do our best, and most of us are making the best choices we can for ourselves and trying to do things compassionately.
“I know that’s hard to believe in this time when everything is so black and white on the internet in terms of what’s good and what’s bad, what choices are good and what choices are bad.
“But I would hope that Superman does unify us a little bit because he is just about those core values that I think everyone believes in. Not everyone, but almost everyone believes in. And so hopefully this is outside of that realm of political discourse in that respect.
“And yeah, I do think that if we can focus on our humanity, which is what Superman is about as a character and as a movie, and focus on doing the best we can day-to-day, then it’s a little bit healing, but not a lot.”
The debut Superman trailer revealed Superman lying prone, battered, bruised, and bleeding after a battle with an unknown foe. Superman calls out to Krypto the Superdog for help, and upon his arrival asks him to take him home.
This sequence, Gunn said in last December’s Q&A, reflects his desire for the Superman movie to act as a place “we can all go home” to.
“At the beginning of this trailer, Superman wants Krypto to take him home,” Gunn said. “And I think that this is a place where we can all go home, to a character that we love, to the simplicity of the morals and goodness and love that Superman embodies as a character, and that we can all go home this summer to Superman. I think it’s something that could be a good thing for us.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
